The Ethos of City Plaza

On May 22nd, 2016, activists and refugees took over the abandoned Hotel City Plaza in the centre of Athens. As a reaction against the EU-Turkey deal, which was passed exactly one month earlier, they established a community where refugees can live in a self-organized manner. City Plaza is now the home of more than 400 people, most of which are stuck in political and physical limbo in Greece due to the Dublin agreement and the EU-Turkey deal. City Plaza does not collaborate with the state or NGO’s. It is supported by various grass-root solidarity movements throughout Greece and Europe. The outspoken aim of the community is to provide an example to the authorities on how basic-democratic organization can work on an all-inclusive and non-hierarchical level.